Ruling party official criticises President’s “damaging” statement on Chinese leader

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Monday criticised “damaging” statements by the Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who on Saturday said seeing the Chinese leader put on trial would be a “historic outcome”.

Mdinaradze’s comment came following the remark by Zourabichvili, who told France’s LCI channel the prospect of the leaders of Russia and China facing court would “clarify certain matters”.

“It is unfortunate that we have to apologise to our friends [and] partners for Salome Zourabichvili’s statements. Today, we are apologising, because she made such a damaging statement for the relations between [Georgia and China]”, Mdinaradze said.

Salome Zourabichvili is no longer the President, we do not call her President anymore - because she no longer has legitimacy from our side - so we mention her not as President, but simply as Salome Zourabichvili”, the party official said in reference to the decision by the country’s Constitutional Court which in October ruled the President had violated the law with her foreign visits in defiance of the Government.

Mdinaradze also called Zourabichvili an “opposition politician who perfectly fit into this niche, and in some cases has even surpassed [domestic ‘radical’ opposition] with her degree of radicalism, actions and speech”.

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday told Zhou Qian, the Chinese Ambassador to Georgia, that comments by Zourabichvili were “categorically unacceptable and disturbing”.